Key fastener



March 1, 1938.

| c. MERRELL 2,109,846

KEY FASTENE'R Filed Feb. 26, 1937- IN VEVTOR.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Mar. 1, 1933 UNHTED STATES PATENT OFFlC E KEY FASTENER Leonard0. Merrell, Stamford, Conn. Application February 26, 1931, Serial No.127,968

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a key fastener of the type used for looking akey within a lock.

, In many homes, especially those built for speculative resale, locks'ofa very insecure nature are 5 used because they are cheap to purchase. In

order to render such looks more secure, resort may be had to a keyfastener which will secure the key within the lock in a positionobstructing the entry of a pass-key from the outside. 7

' This art of key fasteners is a very highly developed one, and thereare a large number of patents showing fasteners of many different typesHowever, the prior art fasteners have lacked many desirable features,and have in the main been too expensive, or too difficult tomanufacture, to warrant their being marketed at a price which peoplewill pay for such devices. I have contributed to the art ,a key'fastenerwhich is extremely simple and cheap to manufacture, being madepreferably of a single piece of spring wire. At the same time, my keyfastener is so made that it is easily applied to a knob and key to befastened, and so fits relatively to the key that it is practicallyimpossible to remove surreptitiously the fastener, from fasteningrelation to the key. It is easily secured to the key, and when itstension is applied to the key it insures the rotation of the key to ahorizontal position, thus obstructing the key hole so as to prevent keysor picking instruments from effectively entering the look from theoutside. Also, my fastener is so constructed that it is readily appliedto keys equipped with varying sizes of bows, this itself being a featureof exceeding importance.

My key fastener, it is impossible to see any part thereof from the keyhole, whereby its surreptitious release through V the key hole will beextremely difficult, if not impossible.

In describing my invention, I shall refer to the drawing wherein thesingle figure illustrates my invention applied to a door.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, reference numeral l0indicates a door to which is applied a lock ll of the usual type havinga latch bolt l2 retracted by a knob l3 mounted on a spindle 14. The lockhas also a bolt l5 retracted by a key it inserted through the usual keyhole l1.

My key fastener is made,- preferably but not necessarily and forcheapness, of a single piece of spring wire l8 formed as an inverted U.The bow IQ of the inverted U may rest on the spindle 55 14 so that thelegs of the U extend downwardly.

furthermore, is so made that Each leg is shaped by the proper coiling ofthe Wire so as to form finger pieces 20 which are easily operated by thehand. The wire forming each of the finger pieces 20 then extendshorizontally as at 2| and terminates in a horizontal U hook 22 adaptedto engage the bow of the key l6, as shown in the drawing.

It will be quite obvious that the lower horizontal leg of each U hook 22extends sufficiently beyond the bow of the key I6 so that substantialmovement must be imparted to the finger pieces 2i] to remove the U hooksfrom the key bow. Also, because of these extensions of the U hooks 22,it will be obvious that horizontal movement must be imparted to the Uhooks 22 before vertical movement maybe imparted thereto sufiicient tolift them out of the key bow. This is, of course, of extreme importance.

At the same time, it will be quite obvious tha V movement must beimparted to both finger pieces 20 in order to remove each of the U hooks22 from the key bow. It will, of course, be readily seen that the Uhooks 22 maintain the key under tension and in a horizontal position,and that while the key is held firmly relatively to the key hole II, atthe same time, it is impossible to see the U hooks 22 from the key hole.

While I have shown but a single form of my invention, and while Irealize that my contribution is made to 'a highly developed art, I feelnevertheless that I have made a relatively broad contribution to thatart, developing as I have an extremely novel and useful, as well asinexpensive form of key fastener.

I now claim:

1. A key fastener formed of an integral piece of spring wire bent intoan inverted U, the ends of the legs of the U being formed of a coil ofsaid Wire to facilitate manual manipulation thereof, the said wireextending horizontally from the upper end of each coil and terminatingin U hooks the legs of which are horizontal, the said hooks engaging thebow of a key to be fastened.

2..A key fastener formed of an integral piece of spring wire bent intoan inverted U, the ends of the legs of the U being formed of a coil ofsaid wire to facilitate manual manipulation thereof, the said wireextending horizontally from the upper end of each coil and. terminatingin U hooks the legs of which are horizontal, the said hooks engaging thebow of a key to be fastened, and requiring substantial horizontalmovement to be released from the said key bow.

